


immortals

by stelian



Category: Star Stealing Prince
Genre: F/F, M/M, post-ep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-05
Updated: 2015-03-05
Packaged: 2018-03-16 09:48:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3483713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stelian/pseuds/stelian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s something you kind of forget about, eventually. When someone lengthens your lifespan without your consent or awareness, it’s not something that presses on your conscience. (or; how Astra learns to deal with being involuntarily immortal)</p>
            </blockquote>





	immortals

**Author's Note:**

> I was sweeping the floor today, and I happened to realize that both of my main ships for this fandom involve one party living longer than the other. Yay! So here's the product of that, written in about an hour and not edited. Enjoy!

It’s something you kind of forget about, eventually. When someone lengthens your lifespan without your consent or awareness, it’s not something that presses on your conscience.

Ever since the Great Shitstorm, as Erio once described the first twenty-something years of Astra’s life, she kind of pushed all thoughts of her childhood to the back of her head. She was aware of the fact that she would live for a long time, she realized this was a Big Deal With Capital Letters, but it wasn’t something that worried her. After all, she had worried enough in the beginning of her life. It was time to ~~sit back~~ stand up and enjoy her life for once.

It was when she and Canan were hiking in Lumisia years later that this all came rushing back to her. She’d just tripped over a rock, something minor enough that Astra giggled at her attempts to get back up.

After a few moments of struggling, Canan just stayed down and said, “Sorry about that. My back just isn’t what it used to be.”

And then, of course, it all came rushing back to her. It had been, what, ten? Fifteen years? And she hadn’t changed at all, had barely matured, maybe she’d grown a bit here and there-

Astra sat down beside Canan. Buried her head in her hands. Half laughed, half sobbed. Didn’t stop until Canan was basically slapping her side.

All she said was, “My life is tied to a demon’s. My fucking life. And I never even thought about it. Oh, my god.”

She didn’t say anything more.

~*~

Erio lived somewhere in Aldcoast; Astra could never remember the exact location until she was there and miraculously found her way to the door. That was precisely why she wandering around the streets in the middle of the night during winter, freezing, biting back tears, her mind still racing

How could she forget something like that?

The look on Canan’s face when she’d left had been heartbreaking. She’d stood up, said she was coming along, that she wasn’t mad she just wanted to help, please come back I’m worried. Astra had yelled at her- something she still regretted. After all, this was her problem, it was her fault, and she had to figure something out alone. She’d apologized just before she left, but she knew Canan was upset with her. She would be too, if she were in her shoes.

Finally, Astra found herself staring at a ghastly green door with slight burn marks. (Snowe had tried to paint it. That did not go well). She knocked gently, trying to compose herself, even though Erio would see right through it immediately.

He opened the door. Saw her standing there, alone, tears streaking her face.

“Oh.”

~*~

Five minutes later, she was huddled underneath a blanket with a large mug of hot chocolate sitting in front of her. Erio sat across from her, leaning forward on his seat, staring at her. She scanned his appearance, and found that, like her, he barely looked any different than he had years ago.

“Where’s Snowe?” she asked, trying to avoid the pressing subject.

“Out.” She knew he meant _out with Xiri_ by the way he tilted his head.

“Why didn’t you go along?”

“Too tired. I didn’t feel like it.”

“Oh.”

Silence.

“So, are you here for the reason I think, or-?”

“I am.”

Silence.

“I’ve looked it up, you know, and I don’t think there’s a way to break it unless-“

“No. You aren’t doing that.”

He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. This was not a conversation either of them wanted to be having; in her mind, the whole thing would magically work itself out with time. Obviously, that was not the case.

“How did it come up?”

She pointedly took a sip of her hot chocolate just to stall for time. “It didn’t. We were walking and she fell and had to take a moment because of her back, and it all just came rushing at me. I… kind of ran off after that.” Astra winced just thinking about it. “So there’s nothing to be done?”

Again, he shifted. Fiddled with the sleeves of his shirt. “I don’t think so. I don’t know what spell Edgar used, and I can’t find anything like it. People don’t tend to do things like that anymore.”

Hopeless. There was nothing she could do but live, live, live, while everyone around her was dying. She didn’t even know how long she would last naturally. And it was all because Snowe’s jackass “father”.

“What are we going to do?” she asked, even though she knew there was nothing he could say to help her.

Erio didn’t answer; instead, he moved so he was next to her and leaned his head against her shoulder. They sat there all night; two immortals with no clue what to do with their lives.

~*~

She lived vicariously in the days that everyone around her had. Everyone else lived their lives with one eye on their own death; Astra kept watch on the deaths of the people around her. When Canan got even the slightest bit sick, she’d take her to an apothecary. The first time, she’d just looked at her funny.

The second time, she understood. And she wept because of it.

They moved out together soon after Astra's freak out, a small house in a city that was perfect for them. Canan grew herbs in the garden, and they would lay outside at night, watching stars pass them by.

The next time she visited Snowe and Erio, she notices instantly how much older Snowe looks. She remembered when he had seemed so young to the rest of them; now, he was growing older while they stayed still.

She embraced Hiante more than she ever did, even as a child. When she isn’t sending letter, she’s visiting. Each visit lessens her fears just for a moment, and then they spring out the moment she leaves.

The truth is, Astra was terrified of living without them. She forged a life with these people; without them…

Erio had his family. Astra had no one.

She made friends with as many people as she could. They looked at her a little strangely at first; first, for looking at least twenty years younger than her wife, and then for aggressively socializing all of the time.

In the end, it doesn’t help.

~*~

Snowe went first.

He was young, really; he had just recently turned fifty, and an infection made him sick for weeks before finally killing him in the middle of the day. Erio worked himself into a frenzy, making experimental medicines that either did nothing or only worked temporarily. In the end, he couldn’t do enough.

Astra stood by while Erio cursed and wept, apologizing every moment or so just like he always had. She said very little, trying to keep back her own tears. She was simply an arm for him to hold when he needed it.

“It could’ve happened so many times when we were younger,” he told her one night. “Hell, I had even accepted it near the end. After Morzin. I almost lost him and I wasn’t even awake to do anything. And then it turned out I couldn’t even do enough anyway.”

She doted on Canan even further.

~*~

Relenia was next; some bandits attacked her while she was traveling. Astra’s hands shook for days after hearing the news. Relenia had always seemed indestructible, and she had never imagined being without her. And then there she was. She held tightly to Canan while she watched the coffin be lowered into the ground, not even aware if she was crying or not.

Hiante went shortly after. He was getting old, he’d said; he was well over a hundred. She’d smiled every time he said that, patted his hand. “You’re looking awfully good for an old man,” she’d say with a wink, and he’d grin back at her.

One day, she passed Erio leaving his room, wiping tears from his eyes. She didn’t even need to ask him what was wrong; he simply said, “He wanted me to break the link.”

He was dead the next day.

She didn’t know what to do.

~*~

She sat by Canan as she died. She was around eighty-seven, and had been doing well until one day she fell while cleaning the floor. From there, it had been a rapid downward spiral.

Canan talked to her, sometimes nonsense, about anything she could think about. She told stories about her when she was younger, and talked about their time together so long ago. And then her memory started going, and she told the same story about dropping a bowl of herbs out a window and onto Sephi’s head once when she was back at the temple. It’s comforting, her babbling. Even when it’s obvious that Canan barely remembers who she is by the end.

Once, she grabbed Astra’s hand and squeezed it weakly. “I loved you,” she said, her voice weak and strained from overuse, “I always did. Thank you so much.” Astra smile at her, hyperaware of her youth, and said, “Me too. I love you.”

Canan stops talking a few days before her death; her throat simply dried up and her brain simply tired from an entire lifetime. Astra was there when it happened. It was simple, quiet, so faint she almost missed it. She saw her draw in a breath, hold it for a bit, and then…

The funeral was a small one. Astra. Erio. Beliaz. Some people from town, but hardly any. Iain had died years ago in battle; Ciran succumbed to age a while back. Canan was cremated, her ashes spread across Norin, just like she’d asked.

~*~

After, she looked at Erio.

Reached out her hand.

“I guess it’s just us now, right?”

He took hers.

“Just like before.”


End file.
